When I first started this project, although I was interested in learning more about student response systems, my main interest was in creating questions for a new piece of technology (a Klickerz kit that my school had purchased) that I had acquired for my classroom. After talking with my advisor, I realized that there was going to be a lot more involved with this project than just creating questions. We talked about identifying needs, setting goals, performing in-depth research, project design, instructional design, instructional development and finally, the implementation and assessment of my project. Even though I couldn’t comprehend why all of this was necessary in the beginning, I can honestly see now how all of the stages worked together to create a better product. Looking back, I can see how each stage effectively laid the groundwork for the next stage. For example, before I did my research I only knew of a few types of clicker questions, but by the time I was finished I had learned about 11 different types of questions that can be used with a student response system. And to take that example a step further, I was able to use that information from my research to develop an activity and purpose matrix which became a foundational piece of my project design. It is examples like these and more that help to illustrate the value in each of the steps that I took in developing and completing my project. The only things that I would want to do differently if I were to do this again have to do with the implementation and assessment elements of my project. Because I performed my implementation study with a relatively small (50 students) and culturally non-diverse (approximately 85% African American, 10% Hispanic, 5% Asian or Indian) population over a relatively short period of time (2 months), I would like to do it again with a larger and more diverse population and over a longer period of time. I think that if I was able to perform a similar study at different schools and over longer periods of time, my results would be more conclusive. However, even though the limitations of my study may have prevented me from making a strong connection between clickers and student achievement, I was still pleased with the positive increases in engagement and student attitude that I observed throughout my study. In terms of the technological side of my project, I have two thoughts. First, I can’t stress enough the importance of having good technological support. One of the reasons that I chose Training Masters, Inc. as my SRS provider was because they were a local company that offered dependable support. If I wouldn’t have been able to work through technological problems with them on a regular basis things could have been a lot worse than they were when problems arose. Second, even though I contacted many different SRS companies about the possibility of using a universal format for creating clicker questions, I was unsuccessful. Consequently, it is time consuming and awkward at best when one needs to transfer questions from one clicker program to another and at worst impossible. I thought that this project was a great way to conclude my master of science in learning technologies. Not only was I able to use the theory and technology skills that I learned in all of my classes, but I was able to apply my new skills in a real-life scenario. Not only that, but the final project was the most challenging and rewarding part of the program. Even though it was a lot of work, I enjoyed what I was doing and was pleased with the results. As a result of doing this project I will definitely take a new approach to developing learning solutions at school – especially ones that involve the use of technology. Not only did the resources that I created for my final project provide me with more “tools” for my “educational toolbox,” but it also inspired me to create more tools in a similar manner. For example, I would love to do a similar project whereby I would learn about the effects of using data collection probes on student engagement and achievement. Or, I would also be interested in similar projects that test the same types of things when students use various types of technology to learn. For now, I will continue to observe the needs of my students and constantly reflect back on what I have learned so I can apply new learning and/or technology solutions to meet their needs. However, I still want to learn more ways to do this and hope to continue my studies in this field within a year or so. During my time off I will reflect on what I have learned and begin to think about where I would like to go from here.
When I first started this project, although I was interested in learning more about student response systems, my main interest was in creating questions for a new piece of technology (a Klickerz kit that my school had purchased) that I had acquired for my classroom. After talking with my advisor, I realized that there was going to be a lot more involved with this project than just creating questions. We talked about identifying needs, setting goals, performing in-depth research, project design, instructional design, instructional development and finally, the implementation and assessment of my project.
Even though I couldn’t comprehend why all of this was necessary in the beginning, I can honestly see now how all of the stages worked together to create a better product. Looking back, I can see how each stage effectively laid the groundwork for the next stage. For example, before I did my research I only knew of a few types of clicker questions, but by the time I was finished I had learned about 11 different types of questions that can be used with a student response system. And to take that example a step further, I was able to use that information from my research to develop an activity and purpose matrix which became a foundational piece of my project design. It is examples like these and more that help to illustrate the value in each of the steps that I took in developing and completing my project.
The only things that I would want to do differently if I were to do this again have to do with the implementation and assessment elements of my project. Because I performed my implementation study with a relatively small (50 students) and culturally non-diverse (approximately 85% African American, 10% Hispanic, 5% Asian or Indian) population over a relatively short period of time (2 months), I would like to do it again with a larger and more diverse population and over a longer period of time. I think that if I was able to perform a similar study at different schools and over longer periods of time, my results would be more conclusive. However, even though the limitations of my study may have prevented me from making a strong connection between clickers and student achievement, I was still pleased with the positive increases in engagement and student attitude that I observed throughout my study.
In terms of the technological side of my project, I have two thoughts. First, I can’t stress enough the importance of having good technological support. One of the reasons that I chose Training Masters, Inc. as my SRS provider was because they were a local company that offered dependable support. If I wouldn’t have been able to work through technological problems with them on a regular basis things could have been a lot worse than they were when problems arose. Second, even though I contacted many different SRS companies about the possibility of using a universal format for creating clicker questions, I was unsuccessful. Consequently, it is time consuming and awkward at best when one needs to transfer questions from one clicker program to another and at worst impossible.
I thought that this project was a great way to conclude my master of science in learning technologies. Not only was I able to use the theory and technology skills that I learned in all of my classes, but I was able to apply my new skills in a real-life scenario. Not only that, but the final project was the most challenging and rewarding part of the program. Even though it was a lot of work, I enjoyed what I was doing and was pleased with the results. As a result of doing this project I will definitely take a new approach to developing learning solutions at school – especially ones that involve the use of technology.
Not only did the resources that I created for my final project provide me with more “tools” for my “educational toolbox,” but it also inspired me to create more tools in a similar manner. For example, I would love to do a similar project whereby I would learn about the effects of using data collection probes on student engagement and achievement. Or, I would also be interested in similar projects that test the same types of things when students use various types of technology to learn.
For now, I will continue to observe the needs of my students and constantly reflect back on what I have learned so I can apply new learning and/or technology solutions to meet their needs. However, I still want to learn more ways to do this and hope to continue my studies in this field within a year or so. During my time off I will reflect on what I have learned and begin to think about where I would like to go from here.